


Truths at Sunrise

by kakotheres



Series: Just Write! Fluff Bingo 2019 [9]
Category: The Magnificent Seven (TV)
Genre: Fluff, M/M, Magnificent Seven AU: ATF, Short One Shot, introspective, sunrise
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-26
Updated: 2019-07-26
Packaged: 2020-07-20 11:54:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,162
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19991749
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kakotheres/pseuds/kakotheres
Summary: Chris musing on early mornings and Ezra Standish.





	Truths at Sunrise

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the Just Write! Discord server, Fluff Bingo 2019.  
> Prompt: Sunrise.

Being awake before the first rays of light begin to filter across the sky is something that Chris is well acquainted with. It’s an automatic instinct for a ranch kid, a universal experience that everyone who grows up on farms shares. There are always chores to do, animals to feed, and the daylight hours are never long enough to get everything done. The ranch he lives on now is smaller than the one he grew up on, his rural life having to compete with the intensity and demanding hours of an ATF agent. Somehow, the farm being smaller doesn’t seem to make the list of chores any shorter. He hires some local help now since he can’t be here at all hours of the day to fix a broken fence or make the rounds to check on every cow during calving season. He thinks sometimes about living the way his father had, a full-time rancher. It’s a good life, but a hard one. Maybe someday, when the rest of the boys start turning their minds to other pursuits, he’ll give the subject more thought. Until then, he’s with them until the end.

Chris has always found himself at his most introspective in the morning. There’s something about the peaceful stillness of dawn that lets his mind wander, the chirping of the birds providing pleasant background noise. On this morning, he finds his thoughts turning to his team. At the end of the day, he’s not sure if it was luck or skill that helped him gather Team 7 together. Josiah says it was destiny, whatever that might mean. Finding his team had given him a new lease on life when he wasn’t completely sure he wanted one. Ultimately, the gathering of Team 7 had brought him back to the land of the living and had even led to the man sleeping curled up beside him, chestnut hair glinting as a few tendrils of light started to slip into the room.

Unlike Chris, Ezra was rarely up early enough to see the rising sun peeking up over the horizon. Indeed, if Ezra was there to witness the first rays break through the dark of night, it was usually on the way to bed after a long night. That was partly due to his job as an undercover agent. The people he was embedded with rarely kept to normal business hours. Still, even if it weren’t for his job, Chris doubted Ezra would ever be a morning person. Even on the few times that he had taken time off, he was always slow to respond to messages until at least mid-morning. The others sometimes joked about it being part of Ezra’s innate laziness. Once, Chris probably would have agreed with them. Ezra certainly said nothing to dispel that particular view.

It wasn’t until the two of them started sleeping together that Chris had realized why Ezra treasured any morning when he was free to sleep for a few more hours. Chris rarely found himself going to bed at the same time as Ezra. And even if they did, Ezra rarely stayed in bed through the whole night. He would get up in the middle, having failed to fall asleep for several hours, and he would instead settle in to do some work or read a book. Chris could sleep like the dead at the drop of a hat. Ezra could go days getting nothing more than a few hours of fitful sleep a night, insomnia a constant enemy to battle. The precious hours that he slept in during the morning were often the only hours of sleep he managed to get, his brain finally accepting the need to shut off. For some reason, Ezra often found his deepest and most peaceful rest during those hours when the sun was newly rising.

And so, Chris did his best to not to disturb him, letting him get the rest he so desperately needed. There was a side benefit to waking up before the other man - Chris loved watching Ezra during those early morning hours. There wasn’t some special innocence to Ezra’s form when he was asleep. He didn’t undergo a magical transition when he was at rest. Asleep, Ezra was the same guarded person that Chris had fallen in love with. He was often curled up into a small ball at the edge of the bed, legs tucked up, knees touching his elbows. But under that first light of day, Chris was given the chance to observe Ezra, letting his eyes linger on eyelashes and cheekbones. Chris could look his fill at Ezra without making the other man self-conscious.

Because that was another quirk of Ezra’s that Chris had only learned after embarking on a romantic relationship with the man. Ezra was an extremely private and insecure man. He presented himself as a flashy peacock to the world at large, wearing designer clothing as armor and using his biting wit to keep people at arm’s length. The first time Chris had told him he was beautiful, he had received a confused stare in response, followed by a quick brushoff. The next time, it had sparked off a minor fight. Ezra had assumed that Chris was mocking him and had responded with wounding barbs. Chris hadn’t responded well, his quick temper rising up, not fully understanding what was going on. Luckily, their relationship had survived the blowup, and tempers had made way for more reasoned communication. Chris had finally managed to convince the other man that the compliments were meant in truth, regardless of how Ezra had perceived them. Ezra still always seemed so unsure of what to do with Chris’s compliments, typically brushing them off with a joke or simply ignoring them.

Ezra used words as a defense, often speaking but rarely letting his thoughts be known. Chris had often heard himself described as a man of few words, but that wasn’t quite the whole truth. Chris speaks when he has words to say and remains silent when he has none. He never hesitates to speak his mind, when he wants to. But he learned to bite his tongue sometimes, especially where Ezra was concerned. Even though he wanted to express so many things, he was aware of needing to meet the other man halfway. Someday, perhaps Ezra would be able to accept his words as truth. Someday he would be able to tell the other man that he was beautiful, that he was strong, that he was incredible…that he loved him. But he could hold onto those words, keeping them safe until Ezra was ready to hear them.

For now, Chris treasured the sunrise. whispering things to the man beside him in preparation for a day when he could shout them from the rooftops. Eventually, he would get up and start the day, his list of responsibilities already starting to filter through the haze of the morning. But for now, this quiet was enough.


End file.
